How GPS monitoring fails in critical public-safety ways

May 11, 2014

Updated May 12, 2014 4:35 p.m.

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Police say a trash bin at this site in east Anaheim was used by serial-killing suspects Steven Gordon and Franc Cano to dump a body. Though Gordon was prohibited by terms of his probation from being with parolee Cano, interviews show they routinely met and slept in a car together. FILE PHOTO: BRUCE CHAMBERS, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Steven Dean Gordon, 45, is one of two suspects charged in the death of Jarrae Nykkole Estepp, a 21-year-old from Oklahoma, and three other women: Martha Anaya, 28, Josephine Vargas, 34, both from Santa Ana, and Kianna Jackson, 20, of Las Vegas. COURTESY OF ANAHEIM POLICE DEPARTMENT

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Franc Cano, 27, is one of two suspects charged in the death of Jarrae Nykkole Estepp, a 21-year-old from Oklahoma, and three other women: Martha Anaya, 28, Josephine Vargas, 34, both from Santa Ana, and Kianna Jackson, 20, of Las Vegas. , COURTESY OF ANAHEIM POLICE DEPARTMENT

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A sex-offender parolee shows a state-issued GPS tracking device on his ankle in San Leandro in 2007. JEFF CHIU, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Police say a trash bin at this site in east Anaheim was used by serial-killing suspects Steven Gordon and Franc Cano to dump a body. Though Gordon was prohibited by terms of his probation from being with parolee Cano, interviews show they routinely met and slept in a car together. FILE PHOTO: BRUCE CHAMBERS, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Gordon's federal court hearing

During a Nov. 12, 2013, hearing in federal court, Steven Dean Gordon urged a judge not to place him on a GPS monitor. Here are excerpts of what he told the judge:

"I was shocked at sleeping on the street when I got out of prison after eight and a half years. I was shocked. I didn't ask for that. They did that to me."

Gordon became a registered sex offender after pleading guilty to molesting a nephew in 1992. He served 15 months in state prison and went back in 2002 for kidnapping his estranged wife and child.

"People think – they look bad on you when you do something like this, especially when they don't have the original date of your crime. It's a lot different when you're 21 and someone reads this as opposed to 44, even though it's still bad no matter how you look at it."

Gordon said he was invited to live with his brother and 15-year-old niece but worried it would bring unwarranted attention to their home. He also said he couldn't find housing more than 2,000 feet away from parks and schools, a restriction placed on sex offenders by the 2006 ballot initiative known as Jessica's Law.

"I can't afford to live anywhere that's outside the 2,000-foot restriction, Your Honor. I make $8 an hour. It's very, very hard."

Source: U.S. District Court transcripts

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New details in the high-profile case of two accused Orange County serial killers have revived concerns that federal supervision of California sex offenders is deeply flawed.

Anaheim police acknowledge that Steven Gordon routinely violated the terms of his federal probation by spending time with longtime friend Franc Cano.

And yet, despite ample anecdotal and physical evidence of these encounters, Gordon never faced serious consequences. His supervisors either missed or ignored the behavior.

Gordon and Cano were charged last month with raping and murdering four women, all of them sex workers. Both men were wearing GPS tracking devices at the time of their arrest. Gordon was being tracked by federal probation officers. Cano was being tracked by state parole officers.

Gordon was swept into the federal probation system last year because he failed to register as a sex offender after crossing state lines. He became part of a growing population of sex offenders under federal supervision. Federal probation officers in California now supervise more than twice the number of sex offenders than they did six years ago, including roughly 240 in the Los Angeles region, records show.

Federal probation officials who supervised Gordon did not respond to numerous phone calls and emails seeking comment. Their growing caseload is clouded in secrecy.

But the fact that Gordon and Cano were being tracked by different agencies could partially explain how Gordon was able to flaunt the terms of his probation without scrutiny.

Experts say law enforcement agencies have a poor track record of sharing GPS data for proactive purposes. They work well together when it comes to investigating crimes – combining data to exonerate or indict a suspect – but not when it comes to detecting them.

“That was exactly the problem,” said Susan Turner, a UC Irvine professor who reviewed GPS monitoring by state parole authorities in 2010. “They had talked about data sharing but they couldn’t do it.”

Gordon isn’t the first sex offender to raise questions about federal supervision in the state. In 2011, an internal federal report outlined how Antioch sex offender Phillip Garrido was monitored so poorly that a judge felt compelled to publish the document online.

Though authorities flagged Garrido as a high-risk offender, the report says, his federal supervisors rarely contacted him at home, never contacted his neighbors and never checked his compliance with sex offender registration laws.

Like Gordon, the holes in Garrido’s supervision came to light only because local authorities intervened. They discovered Garrido had kidnapped an 11-year-old girl in 1991 and held her captive in his Antioch home for 18 years. He was under federal supervision at the time of Jaycee Dugard’s kidnapping.

“Had Mr. Garrido’s federal supervision been conducted properly from the onset, it is possible that he may have been deterred from some of the acts now attributed to him,” wrote then-Chief Judge James Ware, who oversaw federal probation in the San Francisco region.

Ware explained why he published the otherwise confidential report: “We are using its candid criticism and the public scrutiny that comes from it as tools to improve the administration of justice in our District.”

Relatives of the four women were shocked when told about Gordon’s apparent violations. For some, the news added to frustrations about law enforcement. Three of the women had been missing for months before authorities concluded that Gordon and Cano had killed them.

“I would like to take whoever was in charge of their supervision to court and slap it to them,” said Kathy Menzies, mother of Kianna Rae Jackson. “Somebody obviously wasn't doing their job.”

Martha Anaya’s mother, Herlinda Salcedo, said the men should have been monitored more closely. She’s baffled authorities “wouldn't know these two people were spending a lot of time together.”

INTO THE FEDERAL SYSTEM

Gordon and Cano were tracked by state parole officers only until 2012, when they removed GPS bracelets from their ankles and jumped on a bus bound for Las Vegas. Authorities caught up with them at the Circus Circus Hotel & Casino and arrested them for violating parole and failing to register under federal sex offender laws.

Prosecutors charged the latter offense in federal court and both men pleaded guilty. A judge sentenced Cano to eight months in jail and five years’ federal probation. Gordon got 10 months in jail and lifetime probation.

In January 2013, Gordon was released from jail. At that point he was on state parole, which included wearing a GPS tracking device, and federal probation. Court records show his federal probation included a number of conditions: He had to attend sex offender counseling sessions, allow warrantless searches by police, notify officials of residence changes, avoid children and couldn’t possess guns.

The court also banned Gordon from associating with any convicted felon without permission from his supervising probation officer. This condition is the one Anaheim police say Gordon routinely violated by being with Cano.

Gordon’s state parole expired Nov. 9 and his state GPS device was removed.

At a hearing three days later in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, Gordon pleaded with Judge James V. Selna not to order a federal GPS tracker, according to transcripts of the hearing.

Gordon argued he was well-behaved and had adjusted to living on the streets as a homeless sex offender. Gordon told the judge that one good thing about being homeless was “nobody can find you.”

“Two days I've been without the monitor, and I showed up in your courtroom to show you guys that I am here to do what I am supposed to do,” Gordon said. “Two days that I could have went and done anything. But I am here.”

“Well, sir, I need to give high priority to the protection of the public,” Selna told Gordon.

He ordered Gordon to be fitted with a federal GPS device immediately after the court hearing.

Just a few hours later, Martha Anaya, 28, a Santa Ana woman known to frequent a strip of First Street, disappeared.

Police have charged Gordon and Cano with raping and killing her. Both are currently housed in the Orange County Jail, and have not yet entered a plea to the charges.

GORDON’S SUPERVISION

It’s unclear how Gordon’s federal supervisors could have been unaware of his connection to Cano. The homeless duo was together so often that associates jokingly called them boyfriends.

They routinely ate lunch, mingled near dumpsters in an industrial park and slept in Gordon’s beat-up Toyota 4Runner.

“They would sleep together in the truck and when I would come in (the next morning) they would still be in that truck,” said Vincent Salgado, who worked next door to the paint and auto body shop where Gordon washed cars.

Though both Gordon and Cano wore GPS tracking devices, it’s unknown whether Gordon’s federal supervisors had access to the state GPS data. People who’ve worked with California law enforcement to monitor sex offenders say it could have been unavailable given the circumstances.

Law enforcement officials, researchers and industry experts said agencies often don’t share sex offender data for both legal and technical reasons.

George Drake, a consultant to the community corrections industry, said there are at least eight electronic monitoring manufacturers in the United States, all collecting and storing data in a different way, all unable to talk to each other.

“It would be nice if you had a metropolitan area that has multiple agencies tracking offenders, if they could share information,” Drake said. “We can't hold the agencies responsible for technology that is not out there yet.”

SECRETIVE SUPERVISION

Much about the federal supervision of Gordon and 240 other registered sex offenders in the Los Angeles region is difficult to obtain.

In the past month, federal probation officials have declined numerous email, phone and in-person requests from the Register seeking basic information. A receptionist even declined to provide copies of office brochures.

All phone calls to federal probation were referred to Douglas Bys, a deputy chief who one employee described as the office’s designated public information officer. He didn’t return at least eight telephone calls.

The Register also attempted to contact George King, who in his position as chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles is responsible for overseeing the probation office. King returned no messages.

Karen Redmond, a spokeswoman for the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, said probation officers can’t comment on pending cases or even discuss broader topics that may be related. They worry it could damage the integrity of the case.

“We need to be sure that we don't cross that line,” Redmond said. “If this case was not going on we could provide you with some general information about GPS monitoring.”

The Los Angeles office does provide some technical information on its website. But until contacted by the Register last month, at least one key detail was incorrect.

Though Gordon was homeless and under GPS monitoring, the office’s website said homeless offenders were ineligible for electronic monitoring. They “must maintain stable housing, with a suitable telephone line.”

Asked about the website, an unidentified court employee provided the only response to a Register inquiry, saying the website was outdated.

“Advances in equipment now allow for the use of cellular technology for the location monitoring of transient participants,” the updated website states. “However, a stable residence is always preferable and our office works to assist all those under supervision to access suitable housing.”

After the failures in Garrido’s supervision gained national attention, the federal courts produced a policy manual explaining how probation officers should be trained to monitor sex offenders. The court denied the Register’s request for a copy, saying it is “not a public document.”

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